A SHPEHERD FOR THE PEOPLE

Oh, give ear, Shepherd of Israel,
You who lead Joseph like a flock;
You who are enthroned above the cherubim, shine forth!
Before Ephraim and Benjamin and Manasseh, stir up Your power
And come to save us!
O God, restore us
And cause Your face to shine upon us, and we will be saved.
O Lord God of hosts,
How long will You be angry with the prayer of Your people?
You have fed them with the bread of tears,
And You have made them to drink tears in large measure.
You make us an object of contention to our neighbors,
And our enemies laugh among themselves.
O God of hosts, restore us
And cause Your face to shine upon us, and we will be saved.
(Psalm 80: 1-7)

In the course of writing these meditations this year, I've found so many of the passages addressing my personal life, meeting me where I am right now in my walk. It has been both a challenging experience and a joyful one. The Lord is preparing me! But this Psalm reminds me that the Promised Shepherd comes not just for me as an individual, but also as one for all His people.

Our Shepherd does not have one solitary lamb to watch over. He has a whole flock. He sits above the flock, above the angels, watching over all of us, making sure the whole flock is safe and accounted for. It's a very comforting image.

The psalmist here knows that the reality of his people, the nation he lives in, is that they've not really been following the Lord very well.He knows they deserved the troubles they were facing, the "bread of tears" that fed their distress. He looks about and knows that not only was their economy in trouble, the neighboring nations mocked them, their enemies laughed at them. Things were not good.

One of the news discussion programs was on this morning, and as I listened, these verses seemed to resonate clearly. Our people are fed with the bread of tears, we are an object of contenton to our neighbors, our enemies laugh at us. All you have to do is read the international news stories of the last couple of weeks to see this. Even within our "flock", our own society, there are those that make the fierce declaration that the United States is "not a Christian nation". The distressing thing about that declaration is the implication that not only is the U.S. not a religious oligarchy (which I do not have a problem with - government by nature is civil not religious) but that the very principles of Christianity are without worth considering. It is that second element that they are really mocking. Of late, atheists have become far more vocal and driven by activism, wanting to blot out the very expressions of faith in public.

Our enemies laugh at us.

It is not comfortable to be on the receiving end of declarations that say that the core aspect of your existence is merely superstition and stupidity, ignorance and uneducation, that it is pathetic delusion and deserving of being tromped on until it is broken out of existence. When you know that you cannot convince the mocker of that which you have actually experienced simply because you cannot give them an object they can hold and pick apart. You feel you need to defend this precious thing called Belief, and yet when you attempt to defend it you only receive more attacks.

But let us remember that we are the sheep and not the Shepherd.

We do not have the vision, the eyesight, to clearly see all that threatens the flock. We need to trust in our Shepherd, for He is indeed a Good one. He will watch over us. He will protect the flock. He will keep us safe.

And so the psalmist, after admitting that his people have been "out of favor", still calls upon the Lord to restore the flock, to shine His face upon the people, like warm sun upon the grazing flock.

Advent is not just for us as individuals, it is for us as a People. The Lord is coming not just for me but for Us. Instead of bemoaning the hard times that have come to us, let us pray for the sunshine of the Lord's favor, that even the discontented among us be made part of the flock, knowing the security of being under the care of a Good Shepherd.